Pineapple leaf fiber is a newly emerging textile raw material which is extracted from pineapple leaf and belongs to leaf fiber. It is a natural, environmental-friendly and degradable ecological fiber, which not only has the basic properties as good moisture absorption, moisture liberation and thermal conductivity or the like of common fibers, but also has excellent characteristics of disinfection and bacteriostasis, is potential to be developed into relevant natural and functional textiles, and will play an important role in military, medical treatment and daily life.
The pineapple leaf fiber may be blended with cotton to produce jeans with a drapability similar to that of cotton jeans. The pineapple leaf fiber may be blended with silk yarn to weave a high-grade dress fabric. Various furnishing fabric and upholstery fabric may be produced by using pure pineapple leaf fiber yarns produced by rotor spinning as weft yarns and using cotton or other blended yarns as warp yarns. Western-style clothes and coat fabric may be produced by blended yarns of wools and pineapple leaf fibers spun by wool spinning equipment. The blended yarns of pineapple leaf fiber and cotton produced on a jute device may be woven into window cloth, bed sheet, upholstery fabric, towel, carpet and the like. The blended yarns of terylene, acrylon and pineapple leaf fiber produced by a flax device may be used to produce knitted coats for women, socks and the like.
Moreover, the pineapple fiber has also been widely applied in industry. The pineapple leaf fiber may be used to produce needle fabric which may be served as geotechnical cloth for reinforcement and protection of reservoirs and river dikes. Because the pineapple leaf fiber yarns have higher strength and more feathers than that of the cotton yarns, the pineapple leaf fiber is also an ideal material for producing the cord fabric of a rubber conveyer belt and the core wire of a triangular belt. Canvas produced by the pineapple leaf fiber has higher strength than that of cotton canvas with the same specification. The pineapple leaf fiber may also be used for paper making, high-strength plastic, roof material, rope, fishing net and weaving handicraft and the like.
Guangxi Silk and Ramie Institute in China has found out a set of process formula technology like pineapple leaf selection, scraping, degumming, fiber refining and bleaching or the like. However, the cloth fabric is harder, and the degumming technology does not meet the production requirements on textile products yet. China Textile University has also developed studies on such systems like pineapple leaf fiber property, structure, degumming and spinning; however, the fibers subjected to degumming treatment is not thin and soft enough, and can only be blended with other fibers. Only 10N yarns can be spun out by pure pineapple leaf fibers, which has a gap to the present market demand of 20˜40N ramie products.
In recent years, environment pollution has received worldwide attention, while conventional pineapple leaf fiber degumming is to soak proto fibers with acid, then put the proto fibers in a mixed solution of liquid caustic soda, trisodium phosphate and water glass for pressurizing and refining, and then perform such steps like acid soaking, base soaking, oil feeding, dewatering and baking so as to obtain fiber products. During the process, plenty of water is used, and the treated sewage contains harmful chemical compositions (for example, sulfate ions), which are difficult to recycle, and are easy to cause environment pollution. Fiber treatment needs to be performed under the conditions of strong acid, strong base and high temperature, which consumes high energy and much water, severely pollutes the environment, has long treatment time, and causes larger damage on the fibers and also has higher corrodibility on devices. It is urgent to research a pineapple leaf fiber processing technology which can reduce the hardness of the pineapple leaf fiber, improve the fineness and compliance of the fiber, has small pollution on the environment, and is suitable for textile production.
Chinese invention “Pineapple Leaf Fiber Degum Process” (application No. 200910036673.1) discloses a pineapple leaf fiber chemical degumming process, which may produce fibers with a fineness of 550N, but the energy consumption during the process is high, and the pollution to the environment is severe. Chinese invention “Pineapple Leaf Fiber Extension Refining Method” (application No. 200610024817.8) discloses to spray an additive to the pineapple leaf fiber for curing, so as to refine the fiber, but the chemical compositions used during the treatment are easy to cause environment pollution.